


Somewhere in the Dust We Switched

by Morning66



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Angst, Family, Gen, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:33:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24512362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morning66/pseuds/Morning66
Summary: Somewhere along the line, Ken and Gwen switch places.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	Somewhere in the Dust We Switched

Once, Ken had a baby sister. He was four when she was born and it is his first real memory aside from a few vague tastes of food and feelings of happiness. He remembers the sterile smell of the hospital, Chlorax and antiseptic, the whispered words of the doctors. He remembers his mother beckoning him over, smiling, happy for once. Most of all, he remembers her, so small and tiny and red, he thinks because that's what she is, cheeks flushed pink, and hair a flaming crimson.

His father pats his head gently, whispering softly in his ear, "This is your baby sister, Kenny. I know you'll be a good brother and always protect her."

Ken does protect her. When she is still tiny and learning to walk he follows her around constantly, making sure she doesn't fall and hurt herself. As she grows he helps her learn to run and jump and swing and do the monkey bars at the local playground. When she is made fun of in the first grade for being too quiet, for liking books better than people, he defends her. He whispers feverently to her that she is better then them, that she is smart and sweet and the best.

At school, Ken often hears his friends complain about their younger siblings. Nosy, pesky, annoying. But Ken, he loves being a big brother. Loves that she comes to him first with her problems with friends, with trouble with homework, and when their parents high expectations are crushing her thin shoulders. It's them against the world, a team of two, the dynamic duo. Most of all Ken loves her.

At the time, Ken isn't sure when all this changes, when their bond that was once so strong withers and fades, leaving only a remnant, a feeble impersonation of what once was. He assumes it is them both growing up, him going to high school and college and her becoming absorbed in school and activities that causes them to drift apart.

***

( _Years later, when the world is very literally falling apart and his entire understanding of his family has been turned upside down, he will realize exactly when and what drove a wedge between them. It turns out it is her activities, just not the ones he thought._ )

***

The summer Ken is fourteen, he goes to a sleep away camp for three months. It is up north, in the mountains on the shore of a lake. It's the camp he's been begging his parents to attend for the past year, the same one his two best friends go to. He has a blast that summer, swimming and hiking and roasting marshmallows and having adventures. In another world, maybe Ken does not go to sleep away camp. Maybe it's too much money. Maybe he just can't convince his parents. In that world, maybe he goes with Gwen and Ben and Grandpa Max on their summer road trip and experiences what an adventure really is.

When he hugs her before he goes to camp and she leaves for her summer trip, he doesn't realize that it's the last time he'll ever see this girl, this version of her.

"I wish I was going with you," she whispers, face pressed against his chest. "I'll have to deal with the doofus all summer!"

"You'll have fun," he says, knowing he sounds like their mom. "You can write me and I'll try and call you from the camp phone, and quicker than you know it, it'll be fall."

She squeezes him once and then she's gone, gone forever.

Gwen sends him only two letters that summer, both in the first two weeks, both short and oddly vague. Ken tries not to take it to heart. She's probably busy seeing America.

He speaks to her once, on the old-school pay phone on the mess hall's rickety porch. It's night in July, hot and humid and he should really be back to his cabin by now, but the counselor had relented when he told her he wanted to call his baby sister.

Her voice sounds different, and it's more then just the camp's bad phone service. A little bit older, a little bit more distracted then she has ever been before around him. Like in the letters, her account of what they've been doing is vague, more of a list of sites, of destinations, then anything resembling an experience. When he asks about Ben, expecting at least that to provoke an outburst, a reaction, an emotion, she responds that he's okay, that everything is fine between them.

"Are you okay, Gwen?" he asks, because now he's concerned. He feels like he's fallen into some sort of alternative universe, one in which his sister can be peacefully coexisting with her cousin while living together in a 300 square foot chunk of metal on wheels.

"Yeah, um...Listen, Ken, I have to go. Love you, okay?"

And with that she's gone, and he's still holding the phone to his ear, perplexed, as if she'll miraculously call back.

Ken tries not to worry too much. He's sure in the fall it will all go back to normal.

***

( _Five years later, in the dusty crater of what was once a town, Gwen will stand before Ken, twisting the skin of her arm._

_"I wanted to tell you, Ken, I really did" she will say, and then softer, "I never wanted to lie to you."_

_And listening to her sad, tired, old voice, he will remember this moment, leaning against the sagging porch of a children's summer camp and realize that this was the first time. He gave her a chance to tell him and she didn't, a pattern that repeated many times over. He will understand, of course. Understand that how could she tell him? How would she even begin? But he will also think that he's the big brother. He should have protected her and instead, starting on that humid July night, she protected him from the truth of the world._ )

***

It doesn't go back to normal though. In the fall, Gwen seems totally different then three months before. She's older, more mature and there is a hardness in her eyes that he doesn't recognize. She doesn't laugh at the jokes she once did and instead, giggles at in-opportune moments, at things he doesn't understand the humor behind.

"You wouldn't get it," she says with a hint of regret. "You weren't there this summer."

"It must have been some trip."

"You have no idea," she replies and then she's gone, darting away.

Ken starts high school that fall and he's busy with homework, and activities and soccer. It seems Gwen's even more busy, though. She throws herself into school and homework and most of all martial arts. It seems she trains everyday, working tirelessly to achieve perfection, which to anyone else would seem an unreachable goal. On Monday nights, when they used to watch TV together, she now has martial arts practice until nine thirty. On the weekends, when they used to go to the library together, she often goes on trips with Ben and Grandpa in the Rust Bucket. Ken's never invited.

***

( _One day Ken will realize what those trips really were and why she took such an interest in martial arts, in combat, in fighting. He will shake his head, rub his face, and feel like crying. While he was thinking about soccer, about homework, about girls, about whatever else teenage boys think about, she was thinking about the fate of the world. He couldn't even protect his sister and she could protect the world._ )

***

And so days turn to weeks and weeks to months and months to years like flipping through calendar pages and Ken and Gwen grow up and apart. Soon enough Ken's off to college in a whole new state and Gwen begins high school. It's funny how once upon a time being separated for a summer seemed unbearable, seemed like a millennia and now he's at college so much of the year and it's barely anything. They were separated and apart long before he left.

When he comes home from college in those years, Gwen seems to be drifting further and further away. She has permanent bags under her eyes and is always moving, always doing something, never resting. While their mother speaks about how well she's doing, at school, in clubs, in martial arts, all Ken sees is a sad husk of what was once his sister. Ken's worried, but what can he do?

She comes home late one night the Christmas she's fifteen. It's two-thirty and Ken couldn't sleep so he's pursuing the fridge, looking for a midnight snack("You always know there's a boy in the house when food goes missing overnight," his mom likes to grumble under her breath). He's just about to grab the mayonnaise when he hears a car stop outside, hears the slamming of a door.

Moving to the window, he sees his sister getting out of a green muscle car. His sister who he'd assumed was sleeping upstairs, after heading to her room after dinner to work on winter break homework. He squints, trying to see who else is in the car. There's Ben, he's pretty sure, and then another rougher looking boy with messy black hair. Gwen glances up at the house in time to see him looking and a brief look of worry crosses her face. With one last exchange with the two boys, she begins moving towards the house, slipping the door open silently with practiced expertise.

"Gwen, what's going on?" He whispers, alarmed, when she's closed the door.

Gwen sighs and glances to the floor before looking up at him.

"I was just with Ben hanging at Mr. Smoothy's. He's...been having a hard time with school and things. Needed some company," she replies, looking him in the eyes. "Please don't tell mom and dad. You know how they are."

Ken sighs. He does know how they are, always breathing down their children's necks.

"Who was the other guy?" He asks, because he's her brother. He has to.

"Driving the car? Just a friend of Ben's,"Gwen responds, with no hesitation.

Ken signs once more.

"Okay, I won't tell. But listen Gwenny, you've gotta be safe, okay?"

"Sure, Ken. I'll try," she responds, a dark, sad smile on her face, before slipping silently up the stairs.

***

( _Several days later, Ken will find out that Mr. Smoothy's wasn't open that night. It had closed early for the holidays. Upon learning this, he will think back to their exchange in the dark foyer of their house and realize how easily Gwen looked him straight in the eyes and lied. He will remember how even her voice was, remember the steel glinting in her green eyes as they bored into his._

 _Several months later, Ken will find out the truth and understand her dark smile that night, the irony in his question._ )

***

Later that year, Ken's world is rocked to it's very core. He's lost, stolen, turned into a monster. Eventually, he's rescued by the very people he should be protecting, changed back, and reborn into a world where his once normal family has warped into some sort of alien superhero team. His grandfather, the head of an intergalactic alien organization. His grandmother, an alien herself. His cousin, bound to a parasitic watch that turns him into aliens. His baby sister, some sort of crime fighting alien witch.

***

( _The worst part of it all is that this isn't some alternative universe. His family's always been like this. He just never knew._ )

***

Once, Ken had a baby sister. He still has a sister, but she's no longer a baby. This is Ken's sister now, home from college for winter break. Thin and pale and all of sixteen with the same vibrant red hair she had as a child but now it's in a neat ponytail. She's cool and calm and composed around their parents, primly answering their questions about grades and classes and friends. Their parents are nodding and smiling and Ken knows they're relieved that she's having a normal college experience, that she's left thatlifestyle behind.

Ken doubts that she's actually left being a hero behind. He's seen how committed she is to things, whether it be a book series, her schoolwork, or saving the world. He's caught her texting secretly under the table, glimpsed Ben's and Kevin's names on the screen. No, she's probably still involved, it's just that somewhere in the years since that summer, she's learned to lie and lie well. Learned to stare her parents in the eyes and omit details, twist the truth. All for the greater good, of course.

She has a boyfriend, they all know, even if their parents refuse to acknowledge it. Kevin, his name is, the boy Ken saw late that night with the messy hair and ratty clothes. They've been dating over a year, and he moved with Gwen when she went to college, which seems crazy to him. How could his baby sister be in such a serious relationship? But she is and he missed it. He missed the opportunity to meet the guy, to threaten him, to punch him in the face if things went bad. And now they're already practically living together, and, God, they're probably doing _stuff_ , a thought that he has to stop right there because it makes him want to throw up and cry all at the same time.

Late one night, when their parents are asleep, they end up watching TV reruns together. He's not sure exactly how it happens, neither of them able to sleep and somehow, for once they come together. It's like when they were kids, like before that fateful summer, except not, because there's a gulf between them, an abyss that Ken's not sure they'll ever be able to cross.

Halfway through the twenty third episode of some show Ken doesn't know the name of, he sits up and turns to face Gwen because he has to try.

"Gwen...Kevin...," he starts, because he figures using his actual name will get him some credit. "He's a good guy, yeah? He treats you right?"

Gwen smiles. It's not a wide or big, but it might be the first real smile he's seen on her face since she's been home.

"Yeah, Ken. He's a good guy."

Ken nods, reaches over and rests a hand on her leg. There's a pause and then she speaks again.

"Anyway, you don't have to worry. I've taken on bad guys before. I can protect myself, Kenny."

And that hits Ken in the gut. His little sister has taken on bad guys, worse people, aliens, things then he can ever imagine. He was supposed to be the big brother, the protector, but anymore with her he feels like she's the older one, like he's still a little kid.

Somewhere along the line, somewhere in all the years and tears, all the lies and deception and heroics and aliens, Ken broke his promise. He never meant to, but he did. He'll always love his sister but he can't protect her anymore, even though she can protect the world.


End file.
